"On, upward, we moved, impelled by an impulse quite indefinable but
sufficient to condense about us by its contagion the Martian populace,
quick, responsive, inquisitive, intelligent and excitable as children.
We were approaching the Patenta by an ever widening avenue, our rustling
approach announced by a chant of vociferous and yet melodious notes.
"The avenue of Approach is known as the _Imprintum_. On either side rose
lines of marble columns, their lofty capitals crowned with statues,
their bases clustering with marble groups, while breaking now and then
the white monotony, spiral and intertwining pillars of colored glass
sprang into the air, like titanic tropical vines holding in extended
fingers the balls of phosphori.
"The pavement we trod was made of blocks of the phosphori, and at night
this magnificent, indescribable and transcendent street becomes a path
of flame, showering upon the files of silent marble statues above it the
splendor of this spectral effulgence.
"As we came near the buildings of the Patenta our outcry and the
sonorous pulsations of the singing brought to its windows and doorways
the many workers in the laboratories, lecture halls, and offices. We
were regarded with wonder. But there seems present amongst these people
a telepathic power, not perhaps what we call that in the Earth, but an
intuitive construction of meaning upon the passing of a word or a hint.
Forerunners furthermore had given some account of the strange new spirit
from the Earth, who had prearranged with people on the Earth itself, to
return to them, if possible, messages of his experiences after a human
death.
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